Bottled wind, or where are our electrons going to go?

The New York Independent System Operator, the company that regulates the flow of electricity around the state, has just issued a report called “Growing Wind — Final Report of the 2010 NYISO Wind Generation Study.” The 120-page report is packed full of statistics and science and math, making it less compelling than, say, a telephone book. But if you’re willing to wade through it, it offers some interesting insights into how New York state will deal with the growing production of wind energy.

While the study focuses on systemwide issues, the word Watertown appears a lot — more, actually, than any other single community. Why Watertown? Because a study of the state’s transmission facilities reveals that the Watertown electric infrastructure is one of those with the least unused capacity in the state. How convenient, considering the number of wind farm proposals on the table that may be looking to this infrastructure to get power from Hounsfield and Cape Vincent and Clayton and wherever else into the transmission system. The study concludes that infrastructure improvements in Jefferson, Lewis and northern Oneida counties would cost about $204 million to provide sufficient capacity to handle wind-generated production from the north country. That is serious money.

An e-mail from National Grid spokesman Alberto Bianchetti said "Currently, the regulatory policy is not in place that would enable National Grid to move forward with any of the recommendations of the NYISO Wind Study; however, National Grid believes it is a priority for such regulatory policy to be established."

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